


Birdcage

by myotishia



Series: Psyonic [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24463273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myotishia/pseuds/myotishia
Summary: The sequel to "Keep in mind" .
Relationships: Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Owen Harper/Toshiko Sato
Series: Psyonic [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766956
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45





	1. Starting again

Owen grumbled as he tried to remove the metal band from around his newest corpses neck. It was a simple, gold plated, ring with a complex locking mechanism. Picking the lock hadn’t worked so his next option was a set of bolt cutters. The necklace was human made but it was also extremely sturdy. 

“Dinner’s here.” A soft, female, voice called from just beyond the archway.

“Be up in a sec.” 

“It’ll be in the meeting room when you’re done.” 

The neck ring could wait. He’d already processed everything else so he stored the body away and cleaned up before heading up to the meeting room, where the rest of the team had already gathered. 

“We heard you grumbling, wasn’t he doing as he was told?” Gwen asked, leaning back in her chair. 

He sat and pulled his own meal over. “He was the perfect patient. It’s his choice in jewellery I have a problem with. Can’t get the damn thing off.” 

“What?”

“It’s this neck ring with a lock. I tried picking the lock but it looks custom, so after this I’m just going to take some bolt cutters to it.”

Melody thought for a moment before taking out her phone, tapping away. “Here. Does it look similar to this?” She handed over her phone with an image of a silver ring on the screen.

“Yea. Any idea how to get it open?”

“There should be a safety catch hidden on either side of the lock if it’s an older one. If it’s new then the catch should be either side of the neck so it can split into two parts. He must have had a decent amount of money if he could afford one of those.” She took her phone back and slipped it into her pocket. 

“Didn’t know you were into high end jewellery.”

“I’m not. It’s not a necklace.”

“Eh?”

“It’s a fancy collar.” 

Tosh nearly choked, remembering their conversation about Mels knowledge of ‘adult interest’ groups. She grabbed a napkin and tried to play it off, sipping her water. 

Ianto raised an eyebrow. “Are you ok?”

“Fine. Yes, I’m fine.” 

“You’re not meant to breathe it.” Owen teased.

She rolled her eyes in reply.

“Anyway, how did you recognise that so quickly?”

Melody sipped her drink. “They’re made locally. When you said it was a custom lock I was pretty sure it was Dannys work.” 

“First name basis. He a friend of yours?”

“No. I’ve chatted with him online a couple of times but everyone calls him by his first name.”

“If this collar’s custom then the order should have a name attached. Can you get me Dannys number? I can’t find anything else to ID the body.”

“I’ll send it over after dinner. But it’s his work number so you might not get an answer until tomorrow.”

“Speaking of it being later than usual, I thought you would have gone home already.”

“I wanted to finalise the telepathy test amendments.”

“Please tell me it’s just a piece of paper that says, let Melody do it.” Gwen teased, smiling playfully. 

She chuckled. “No. I can’t always be around. Anyway, have you ever seen two telepaths communicate? In movies it looks really intense and cool. In real life we just look like we’re trying to read really tiny writing.” She squinted to accentuate her point. 

“You’ve met other telepaths?”

“Oh yea. We have a message board. In person I’ve only ever met one. He was nice but I think I scared him a little bit. Granted that was when I was like fourteen and still looked like one of the children of the corn.”

Owen smirked. “You still look like one of the children of the corn.”

“I’ve gotten at least three inches taller since then.”

That pulled a round of chuckles through the room. It was nice. Light. Jack always enjoyed the evenings when his team could relax a little, even in the middle of a case. 

“Oh, Owen, been meaning to ask, when will Mels arm be healed enough for her to finally spend some time on the range?” The captain asked casually. 

Owen thought for a moment. “Should be ok from now as long as they’re our modded weapons. She can always stop if it starts playing up.” 

“What?” Melody looked between them in confusion.

“Even if you’re stuck in the office all the time you need to know how to handle a gun. Just in case.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yea. Why?” 

“I just never thought that’d be necessary.”

Ianto noted how uncomfortable she suddenly looked. “It’s just a formality. I’ll teach you tomorrow.”

“Anyway, it might be a bit intimidating but it’s fun once you get past that bit.” Gwen tried to reassure her workmate. “You’ll probably never have to use it but it’s a good skill to have. Plus it’s great when the funfair rolls in.” 

Tosh nodded. “That’s how I got the huge teddy bear I keep in the corner of my bedroom. The man running the stall couldn’t believe it.” 

“We all nearly got kicked out because a certain group of lads got into a bit of a contest.”

“It’s not our fault their little scam didn’t work.” Owen said, looking more than a little pleased at the memory. “Once you work out how those things have been tampered with it’s easy.”

“That group of kids were happy though. I swear that stuffed dragon was bigger than the little girl that carried it off.” 

Mel smiled softly, calming a little. “When did you all have time to go to the fair?”

“We were there originally because a family of weevils had been spotted eyeing up one of the burger vans. After we shooed them off we just stuck around for a bit afterwards and made the most of it.” 

“We brought back some candy floss for Janet.” Jack beamed. “She didn’t know what to make of it at first, but after that she spent hours just licking sugar off her claws.”

Ianto rolled his eyes. “And the walls, and the floor, and the doors.”

Melody woke to her phone alarm blaring the next morning. She opened one eye and reached over to shut it up, lamenting her inability to be a morning person. As she sat up she winced, her back aching. A lovely start to the day. She’d spent the night nervous about firearms training and that meant she’d been tossing and turning all night. The curtains moved with a slight breeze wafting into the room. It was cold, but not uncomfortable, as she pushed back the duvet and sat on the edge of the bed. She grabbed her necklace and placed it around her neck before strapping on the arm support she’d gotten used to wearing. Her shoulder was pretty much healed but her elbow was taking its sweet time. That was the joint that had been twisted, she supposed it would take a lot longer to fully heal, if it ever did. Her guitar sat gathering dust against the wall and she promised herself she’d give playing a try later.  
The ringing of her phone alarm said her five minute snooze was up. She stood and stretched, muting her phone and grabbing her clothes for the day before dragging herself to the bathroom. She had a routine that she could sleepwalk her way through, but she always woke up properly after her half cup of cheap instant coffee at breakfast. She never finished a whole cup and had to admit it tasted watery and bitter compared to what she’d gotten used to at work, but it was caffeinated and that’s what mattered. As she munched on a barely toasted croissant she looked over the rental listings closer to work. She couldn’t stay in a student flat forever. Strictly speaking she shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but thanks to a very kind landlady and some good timing she wasn’t stuck living miles out of the city with relatives. It was meant to be temporary and now she had a job it could be. There were a few places in her price range that were closer to work but she’d have to check them out at the weekend. 

“Morning.” Jessica said groggily, plodding through the kitchen in her mismatched pyjamas to the kettle. 

Mel smiled softly. “Morning. Rough night?”

“I lost track of time chatting with Tony while I was meant to be studying.”

“Why don’t you just invite him over?”

She scoffed. “Yea, that’ll make studying easier. Anyway, I’m still a bit iffy with inviting anyone over after… Well, you know. What happened with… Yea.”

“Yea.” Mel frowned deeply and closed the browser on her phone. “Have you remembered anything else that happened?”

“Naa. I can’t believe she slipped something in my drink just to ransack the place. Mum said you’d cleaned up really well but she could tell the whole place had been turned over. She still wants to adopt you.”

She chuckled lightly. “I don’t think my parents would be too impressed. My sisters on the other hand…”

“That’s sisters for you though, isn’t it. How’s your arm?”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“Someone has to.” She smiled. “I’m going shopping later. Anything you want?”

“We’re running low on dried pasta and the milk’s a bit suspect so you might want to pick up another bottle.”

Jess took the milk from the fridge and sniffed it, cringing, before dropping it into the bin. “You should get going if you don’t wanna be late.”

“Oh, right, yea. Got distracted.” She dumped her mug and plate in the sink, then grabbed her coat and bag, slipping her headphones on. “Later.”

“Byee.”

The cold morning air was nice to walk out into. Taking a deep breath she began her walk to work. Part of her hoped to see signs of some alien shenanigans going on so she could avoid firearms training for another day, but the sky was clear and the world was peaceful. Within temptations ‘angels’ played through her headphones, dictating the rhythm of her steps. It helped block out the thoughts of the morning commuters as they sleepily drove past. The world was a very noisy place when no one knew how to quiet their minds. At least at work it was quiet. She’d noticed that Jacks thoughts were always silent and Ianto was usually very careful to keep his thoughts quiet. It was a gesture she appreciated more than she could express. The rest of her walk was nothing out of the ordinary and she pulled off her headphones as she stepped into the tourist information centre, her nose filling with the familiar scent of paper, coffee and old furniture. It was warm and comforting. 

“Morning.” Ianto smiled, immaculately dressed as ever, a mug of coffee in his hand. 

She nodded a greeting. “Good morning.” Maybe if she acted chipper enough she’d start to feel it too. 

“Still nervous?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.”

“You’ll be fine. Though one bit of advice.”

“Yea?”

“You might want to clip back your fringe. I’m surprised you can even see where you’re going with it over your eyes.”

“Oh… Yea.” She blushed lightly. “That’s kind of by design. It limits the risk of me looking into anyones eyes accidentally.” She brushed her fringe aside and took a couple of hair clips from her bag, snapping them in place. It was the first time Ianto had really seen her face since they met. He didn’t let himself look at her eyes, even though part of him was curious as to what they looked like. 

“I promise I’ll keep my eyes to myself.” He opened the hidden door and held it for her politely. 

“Anything interesting happen overnight?”

“Other than being woken up at five this morning to retrieve a weevil that broke into Tesco, no.”

“Seriously?”

“Completely. It ate so much it could barely hobble out when we got there. It’s sleeping it off in the cells.”

She chuckled at the idea as they made their way down into the first basement floor of the hub. She placed her bag in her locker and hung her coat up before heading to meet Ianto just outside one of the doors she usually didn’t have the clearance to go through. She could get to the general storage, the safe section of the archives and even the outside of the cells but that was it. Not that it bothered her one bit. After all, her job was beginner level and she never needed access to anywhere else in the building. The firing range was through a heavy access door she barely even registered being there. Ianto walked through with two cases he’d retrieved from the armoury. He placed them on a side table and beckoned Mel into the room as she hung back by the door. 

“What’s really wrong?” He asked.

She tilted her head. “Huh?”

“I know you’re not this nervous about just any new thing. We’ve got at least an hour before anyone else gets here and Jack’s up on the roof, so what’s wrong?”

“I…” She sighed deeply. “I just don’t think I’ll ever be able to use any of this, even in a situation where it’s needed.”

“Why?”

“When people are truly fearing for their lives their minds make this noise… Have you ever heard a rabbit scream? It’s like that but… It’s like a chorus of them. It’s debilitating.”

“Melody, you’ll probably never need to use a weapon of any kind. I told you, it’s just a formality. Anyway, you can use your telepathy in an emergency. Think of this as just a safety course. It’ll mean if any of us are disarmed you’ll be able to safely tidy everything away.” 

“Ok.” She didn’t sound convinced. 

“And if you manage to actually hit the target I’ll go and get donuts at lunch time.” 

She smiled softly. “You know the way to a girls heart.”

“No, I just want donuts.” He teased gently.


	2. Crash

Owen leaned back in his chair, taking a bite of his donut. He’d managed to put a name to the faceless corpse wearing a grands worth of collar and he’d handed it over to Tosh to work her magic online. According to the police database he’d only ever had one speeding offence and was otherwise a very average man. He’d worked in a corner shop five days a week, was separated from his wife and seemed to spend his weekends watching tv or at the pub. He’d been incredibly average, but he lost his face and most of his internal organs somehow. 

“Invitation only forums are so annoying.” Tosh grumbled to herself quietly, taking a sip of her coffee. 

“Problem?”

“Just a small annoyance. I don’t want to brute force it if I don’t have to.”

Melody looked up from her spot on the sofa and recognised the site layout. “I can send you an invitation, or if you’re just searching through posts you’re welcome to use my account.”

“That would make my life a lot easier, thanks.”

“No problem.” She took a napkin and cleaned the sugar from her fingers before walking over to Toshikos workstation and logging into her account. “There you go. Did Danny help?”

Owen nodded. “Yep. The collar had a serial number so he could look up the order. He didn’t sound the type to spend that much money on what’s basically a bulky necklace though.”

“Maybe it was a gift from his partner.”

“He was separated from his wife and we haven’t heard anything about a new girlfriend.”

Tosh looked up the mans username and scrolled through his posts. “It looks like he was meeting someone. His posts don’t give details but he seemed excited about it. This says he met them at a gathering.”

“I remember reading that post.” Mel said. “It’s an open get together so anyone can turn up. You just have to sign up before the day. There’s a guest book too.”

“So the organiser should be able to help us find out who he met.” 

“Sandra’s nice. I’m sure she’d be happy to help, and if she can’t there’s another meeting this weekend so there could be lots of people who saw who he went with.”

Owen got a mischievous look on his face. “You know a lot about all this. You ever go to one of these little get togethers?”

“Once. And it’s not what you think.” She blushed. “It’s actually just a casual thing.”

“I’m just saying. You’re an adult, no judgements here. You just didn’t strike me as the kinky type.”

Gwen rolled her eyes and huffed. “Oh ignore him. He’s just winding you up.”

“I’m innocent.”

“Innocent like a fox in a henhouse. How did your firearms lesson go this morning anyway?”

“Well, I think.” Mel tried to push away the embarrassment that had her looking like a tomato. “No one told me the level I had to keep up with though.”

“Oh? I didn’t expect Ianto to be a strict teacher.”

“He wasn’t but I swear I’ve never seen accuracy like his. There were six holes in the target and he fired eight times into the centre. So two bullets went right through the holes that were already there. That’s just amazing.”

She chuckled lightly. “You don’t have to get anywhere close to that. As long as you can hit the target at all then that’s good enough.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m positive. You look nice with your fringe pinned back by the way.”

Mel made the mistake of looking up. “Huh?” She caught a flash of the green of Gwens eyes and her mind was suddenly flooded with the whole of the womans morning followed by every intrusive thought she’d had that week. Melody immediately dropped her eyes to the floor and stepped back. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s ok.” Gwen assured, rubbing her eyes to push away the tingling feeling just behind them, like the static sensation you get after a limb has fallen asleep. “No harm done.”

She pulled her fringe back down over her eyes. “I should have been more careful. I didn’t get anything private, I don’t think.”

“It’s fine, seriously. Are you ok?”

She nodded. “I… I should get back to work. I shouldn’t be distracting everyone anyway.” Without another word, or backwards glance, she rushed off back to the tourist information centre. 

Owen turned to Gwen in slight confusion. “What just happened?” 

“I looked her in the eye for about a millisecond. I’m fine, I’ll go and talk to her in a bit”

Jack stepped out of the SUV, wondering why Gwen had been so quiet the whole drive there. The chill of the morning had slowly developed into a biting cold that threatened to creep into his coat and rob him of the warmth that the heater had gifted him with. The house they’d parked outside of was an older build with a quaint little garden, a childs bike abandoned on the grass next to the short pathway up to the blue painted door. Gwen knocked on the door and they both waited, a figure approaching the frosted glass set in the door. A middle aged woman with her hair pulled into a loose ponytail answered. 

“Sandra Peterson?” Jack asked.

The woman nodded. “That would be me.”

“Would you mind answering a few questions about a Mr Oliver Wellborne.”

“Olly? Come in, come in.” She beckoned them in. The house was tidy but it was clear that she had a child living in the house. Framed paper awards from a local primary school decorated a noticeboard in the living room. “Is Olly alright? It’s not like him to be so quiet online.”

Gwen gave a sad look to Jack before turning her attention back to the woman. “You might want to sit down.”

“Oh… Oh dear.” She sat in one of the armchairs. “What happened?” 

“Oliver was sadly found dead yesterday.”

She held her shaking hands over her mouth. 

“I know this is a shock but we need to know if he’d come into contact with anyone new. His internet history led back to the group you run and we’d like to know if you remember him getting close to anyone specifically?” 

“I… I don’t remember… Wait…” She stood and walked over to a cabinet, locked with a key she’d hidden on top, presumably to keep it out of reach from little hands. She took a book from inside then sat back down, flicking through the pages. “We haven’t had many new members recently, but Olly had a habit of not being too careful who he spent his time with. The last I heard, he was staying with his brother so he couldn’t take anyone back there.” She stopped on a page. “These are the only new names we have. I hope they’ll be of some use to you. I don’t want to think badly of anyone in the group.”

“Would you mind if we took the book?”

“If it’ll help. It just has names and if they’ve shown ID so I’m not sure how much you can get out of it.”

“Anything you can give us will help. Has anyone been acting strangely recently?”

“No. One of our new girls is a little quiet, but she’s only young so I think she’d just a little bit shy. Not that I think it was her. Girl couldn’t hurt a fly.”

Gwen slumped in her seat as soon as she got into the SUV. “That was rougher than I thought it would be.”

“But we got information.”

“True… She’s not what I expected.”

He chuckled. “What were you expecting?”

“I dunno. Just, not a middle aged housewife who bakes bread and walks the kids home from school.”

“It’s almost like what you do in the bedroom doesn’t change who you are in the daytime.”

“I never said it did.”

“So why were you so resistant to leave the hub?”

“I just wanted to check on Mel after earlier.”

“I didn’t think Ianto was tough with her.”

“No, not that. I looked her in the eye for a second earlier by accident. I’m fine but she looked a bit upset about it.”

He cast a worried glance over to her. “I’ll talk to her.”

“You don’t have to. I just don’t want her to think she did anything wrong.”

“Maybe we should start telepathic defence training. Just in case.” 

“Won’t that just make her feel wor-” The windscreen shattered as if something large had slammed into it with the force of a cannon ball. Jack skidded the vehicle to a halt, thankfully keeping it on all four wheels. He hadn’t seen anything. Neither of them had. She caught her breath, trying to check if she was hurt. Jack stepped out and looked back down the clear, empty, road. 

Gwen winced as Owen removed the last chunk of glass that had embedded itself in her skin. The windscreen was made so it didn’t shatter like normal glass but at speed it still threw off sharp chunks. Thankfully no stitches were necessary and she wasn’t seriously hurt. 

“I can’t work out what did it.” Jack said, mostly to himself. 

Ianto walked past, a chunk of the glass in his hand. “There’s no debris from any kind of projectile.” He placed the glass on Toshikos desk. “At least not that I can find. There’s no sign of any other damage either. You’d think that something with the force to smash the windscreen would leave some kind of mark.”

“I didn’t feel anything hit us directly. Whatever it was hit the glass and just… Vanished.”

“Some kind of sonic weapon perhaps?” Tosh noted, looking at the sample of glass. 

“Maybe. Our ears should have been ringing if it was. When can we get it replaced?”

Ianto double checked there were no shards left on his hands. “Tomorrow morning at the earliest. Mel’s cleaning out the largest bits but I’ll detail it later.” 

“We’ve got a list of names now at least.” Gwen pointed to the book. “Though I’m going to brush the glass bits out of my hair first.” 

Mel was glad she’d worn trousers instead of a skirt as she clambered out from vacuuming up glass in the back of the SUV. It had flown some distance and she didn’t want to miss any, even if Ianto had told her to take it easy. She stood back and took a deep breath, stretching.

“Having fun?” Asked Gwen as she walked over from her own car with a comb held in one hand.

She jumped slightly. “Oh hello. Are you ok? This looked pretty nasty.”

“Just a few scratches and a bit of a scare. I’ve been through worse. How are you?”

“Me? I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me… I’m sorry again for earlier.”

“I told you, it’s fine. No harm done.”

“Um… If you ever need to talk, you know you can talk to me. I don’t know if I can help much but I’m good at listening.” 

“What? I mean, thanks but what brought that on?”

“You have a more than average amount of intrusive thoughts. If they start to bother you it’s good to talk them over. Trying to pretend they aren’t there can make them a lot worse. You don’t have to but I thought… Maybe it would help.”

She smiled softly. “Thank you.” 

“Of course.”

“Look, we were thinking, tomorrow night, if the world doesn’t end, of going for drinks after work. You should come with us.”

“Me? Oh… Um… I’ll think about it. Thanks.”

Gwen smiled excitedly and walked back to join the investigation. Mel turned back to the SUV, her cheeks flushed and tried to go back to cleaning. Now was not a good time to develop a crush on a workmate. It was never a good time to develop a crush on a workmate, especially one who had a boyfriend. She decided it was a better idea to concentrate on cleaning the SUV from top to bottom instead of thinking about her bad romantic decisions. She moved around to the front seats and felt something radiating from the window frame. Reaching out she could feel something like static. Telekinetic residue. 

Jack almost seemed to glare down at the file on his desk. It felt like he was missing something. This seemingly ordinary man goes out one night and is found the next day with his face torn off and his internal organs melted just lying in the grass in a park. No sign of a struggle, blood too contaminated to tell if he was drugged beforehand, no definite leads, too many human suspects. His ex wife had been overseas which ruled her out, alien or otherwise. His brother was in hospital after a nasty accident at work. The only strong lead they had was this mysterious woman he had supposedly met up with. A woman that Tosh had found footage of entering the park with him but didn’t look up once. Like she knew where the cameras were. She was so nondescript that they wouldn’t be able to pick her out in a crowd. Unless they were lucky enough to just run into whatever this was, they needed to find this woman. He absent mindedly chewed on the end of his pencil.

“Um… Are you busy?” Melody asked from the doorway. 

He looked up, dropping the pencil on his desk. “I can always make time. What’s up?”

“The frame of the windscreen on the SUV has telekinetic residue all over it.”

“Don’t tell me our black widow has telekinesis too.”

“Beings with telekinesis generally don’t use other methods to kill. It just… Felt familiar.”

“Familiar how?”

“I can’t be sure but it felt the same as the Tengariens telekinesis. Maybe I’m being paranoid about that but it’s definitely some kind of telekinesis.” She fidgeted with the pendant around her neck nervously. 

He decided not to mention it, instead he stood and moved around the desk, taking her hand gently. “You know I’m not going to let anything hurt you, right?”

She nodded silently.

“Looks like I know what I’m checking up on tonight.”

“Wait, you’re not going back to that ship are you?” 

“I was going to let them sweat it out for a couple of months but it looks like they want to play rough.”

“You can’t possibly face them without some kind of psionic protection.”

“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” 


	3. freefall

“Damn!” Exclaimed Jack, looking down into the long tunnel that had been dug from the ship to the surface. “I was really hoping she was just being a little paranoid.” 

Tosh held out the scanner she’d been carrying. “There are no life signs below us. How many do you think we’re dealing with?”

“If the anthropologist was being honest there could be up to sixteen. They should have been fine for years on that ship.”

“Yea, well it looks like they got sick of just sitting around.” Owen sighed, his breath rising in a cloud against the clear, deep blue, sky. 

Tosh spun around, feeling a hand brush against her back, only to see nothing. 

“Tosh?”

“I swear I just felt-” She was thrown violently to the ground by an unseen force, the scanner lost to the roots of the trees. Owen rushed over, trusting Jack and Gwen to cover him while he made sure Tosh was ok. She grabbed onto his arm to steady herself, feeling bruised but otherwise unharmed. 

A voice, deep and angry, emanated from the shadows between the trees. “Return our controller!” 

Jack fired into the darkness in the direction of the voice, hearing something groan in pain, before being thrown backwards and into the trunk of a large tree. He clambered to his feet and nodded to Gwen. She’d had her hand hidden in her pocket, fingers clasped tightly around what was essentially an advanced flashbang. Owen and Tosh ducked down just before it went off. A bright light flashed and a sonic wave shot in all directions. As the wave dissipated Gwen took one of the earplugs out, clearly hearing the sound of a group of now deaf aliens. She moved towards the closest one and found it hunched over, blood running down the sides of its head. 

It looked up with wide, yellow, eyes. “Our shipmates are already retrieving the controller.” The light drained from its eyes as it fell to the ground, dead. 

“Sorry you have to escort me home.” Melody said as she pulled her keys from her pocket, unlocking the front door of her flat. 

Ianto waved it off. “I don’t mind.”

The flat was quiet when they entered. A note left on the coffee table said Jessica had gone shopping but planned to stay with her boyfriend overnight. Mel left the note on the table.

“I’d offer you a coffee but we only have instant.” She said, chuckling at the look he gave her. “I know, I know. It’s awful but it’s caffeinated and cheap.”

“Then drink tea, you don’t have to poison yourself with that.”

“Tea takes time I don’t have in the morning.”

“Then this is an intervention.” He said, completely straight faced. 

She appreciated his dry sense of humour and smiled brightly. “Well, Jess is out tonight so if you want to hang around for a bit you’re welcome to. I’m probably going to order in tonight anyway.”

“Sounds good.” He pulled off his coat and folded it on the arm of the sofa. It was a nice little flat for student accommodation. He’d expected it to be a lot smaller if he was honest. “What does your flatmate study?”

“Jess is a biology major. She acts a bit ditsy but she’s actually really smart.” She placed two cans of coke on the coffee table. “Kind of blasts my psych’ A level out of the water.”

“Why didn’t you continue?”

“I got scared off by the workload. Maybe I’ll go back to it at some point.”

“You should.” A loud thud drew his attention.

“The lads down the hall better not be out there with the coke and mentos again.”

A second thud was followed by the lights going out. Outside the door other people could be heard opening their doors in confusion. 

“So not the mentos then.”

“Not unless they set it off inside the fuse box.” He reached for his gun, a sneaking suspicion that this wasn’t just students being students. “How long do you think it’ll be before they all go back inside?”

“These are the type of people to set off pop based rockets inside. We’ll be lucky if they don’t get torches and start a rave out there.”

“Can you tell them that everything’s fine?”

“I don’t think they’ll believe m-... Wait. I get it. One sec.” She closed her eyes and felt for the minds of the tenants around them. She just needed to implant a feeling of calm and a drowsiness so they all decided that going to bed was a better idea than hanging around in the hallway. Moments later doors were heard closing. “There, I think it worked but if there’s too much commotion they might investigate again.” 

“Can you tell if someones mind isn’t human?”

“Yea.”

“Try and see if there’s anything moving towards us.”

She scanned the minds around her before finding three that were not human. “One outside, moving up the wall. One inside, moving up the stairwell. One by the power box just behind the building. We’re surrounded.” 

“Can you stop them?”

She clutched the pendant around her neck. “I’ll try.” She invaded the mind of the alien scaling the side of the building, crashing through its mental defences with less resistance than she expected. The last none human mind she’d had to invade to defend herself had been extremely difficult. It had also been when she was still at college. It had been what she initially thought was just a stalker, but as it looked more like a bipedal squid man it certainly wasn’t a human one. She’d had to make it harm itself after it had cornered her. Thankfully that had been enough to scare it away permanently. She wasn’t so sure that would work this time. The alien ascending the side of the building stopped as its senses began to fail. It could feel the intruder but it couldn’t push her out. The controller hadn’t been this adept before. It didn’t have any more time to think about it as it landed in the bushes, unconscious. 

With the other bodies dropped down into the ship to hide them temporarily Jack was trying to contact Ianto. Finally he got an answer.

“A bit busy right now.” The welshman said, sounding tense. 

“Are the tengariens already attacking?” 

“Three of them apparently.”

“Just keep Mel safe. We’re on our way.” 

Ianto slowly and carefully opened the door, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. The only light source in the hallway being from the skylight above. He took a step out and made his way towards the bannister, allowing him to see all the way down to the ground floor. He could see something moving below, not walking, drifting. He backed up and closed the door as silently as he could. 

“It’s downstairs. Is there any other way out of the building?” He asked, closing the curtains.

Melody shook her head. “We’d have to go through the hallway to even reach the fire exit.”

“Then talking's out of the question.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to shoot it before it has a chance to attack.”

“Isn’t there any other way?”

“At this point? No. Just stay back. If this goes badly then try and get to the fire escape. Jack’s on his way but he’s going to be a while.” He didn’t wait for her to reply, opening the front door and aiming at the drifting figure. He fired without a second thought before the alien turned and sneered. Three bullets drifted above its palm, turning in the air, as the being sneered.

“You think your primitive weapon will stop me? I am the captain of the most advanced ship in the Tengarien royal fleet! I am not some basic foot soldier!” It hissed, crushing the bullets into a single lump with its mind alone. It looked to have had implants of its own, the most obvious being the ones in its head. The others were attached to its back, controlling the four tools held in midair. A metal claw shot forward and latched itself around Iantos throat, pinning him against the wall, his gun clattering to the floor. A drill like piece of technology shot towards him next, embedding itself in the wall only millimetres from his head. He wrapped his fingers around the claw to try and ease the pressure on his windpipe. 

“You’re never going to get that ship off planet! It’s too damaged.” He wheezed. The claw gripped even harder, cutting into his skin.

“The controller can fix enough of the damage to get out of the atmosphere.” It pulled him towards it, holding him over the three story drop. 

He tried not to look down. Panic would only make things worse and make him pass out from lack of oxygen faster. The tengarien almost looked like it was smirking as it toyed with him. At least it would be distracted enough to let Melody escape. 

Mel shook, curled into a ball behind her sofa, terrified, recognising the aliens voice. It was the one who had slowly dislocated the joints in her arm. Her mind raced. What if it was going to do that to Ianto? It could kill him. She wanted to help but she was frozen in fear. Hearing Ianto cry out snapped her from her daze. She crawled from her hiding place and towards the door, peeking around it. Ianto had been dropped and was clinging to the bars of the banister by only his fingertips. The alien let out what could have been a laugh and moved the claw to begin snapping at his fingertips. 

Melody wrapped a shaking hand around the pendant hanging around her neck and pulled herself to her feet. “Leave him alone!”

The alien turned its attention from Ianto, letting him get a better grip on the banister. 

“So the controller finally shows itself.” The being said, turning towards her. “It’s time for you to be returned to the ship so I can leave this miserable rock.” 

“You could have left with the Anthropologist but you chose this instead. I won’t help you.”

“That is very brave talk for a frightened little human. I see the way you tremble.”

“I have a good reason to be scared after what you did to me, but this time I’m not waiting for someone to rescue me. This time I’m going to rescue myself!”

It seemed to laugh, looking down at her. “And how do you plan to do that? You tried to fight me last time and failed. What’s so different now?”

“This time-” She lifted her gaze and brushed back her fringe. “-you’ve let me look you in the eye.”

It paused, the tools clattering down the steps, past Ianto and all the way to the ground floor. “Wha… How…?”

“Your home planet is beautiful. Your family group were so proud of you, even though your telekinesis was the weakest of them. You never told them about how many implants you got to become stronger, and they never even suspected you when your shipmate mysteriously passed away letting you become captain. I know everything you are. Everything you have been. Your hopes and fears. I never wanted to do this. I just wanted to be left alone but you couldn’t let go of your pride.” She said, her voice monotone and emotionless as she stared, unblinking, at the being.

Ianto took the opportunity to pull himself up and retrieve his gun that had landed half way down the hall. He was still unnoticed as he lined up a shot, firing into the beings head. The sound bounced off the walls and almost echoed down the stairwell as the aliens body fell. Melody staggered back, holding her head. He reached out to support her as doors all around shot open. 

One of the men from down the hall was the first to ask. “What the hell was that?”

“No idea. We heard it and came to check too.” Ianto replied, shrugging as he slipped his gun into his jacket so it couldn’t be seen. 

A scream from below said that this wasn’t going to get easier. Or that’s what he thought before everything stopped. Every person in sight froze in place, staring blankly. After a moment they all turned back as if they weren’t quite sure why they were outside their doors in the first place. He guided Melody back into her flat and sat her on the sofa.

“Are you ok?”

“I’ll be fine… I just… Why didn’t he just stop? Why didn’t he run away? I was in his head and took away his weapons, but he could have just flown off.”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“I should help you move his body, your arms must be killing you.”

“No, you stay right here. I can move one body.”

“It’s not just one.”

“What?”

“When I was in his head I saw the link he had with his crew. When he died it killed the other two under his command. One’s in the bushes just outside. The other’s by the power box on the hill. She just flipped one of the switches to cut the power.”

He sat next to her. “I’m sorry you had to feel that.”

“Me too… I want to help. Please?”

He sighed deeply. “Ok, ok. But we’re just going to cover them up. The others can help move the bodies when they get here.” 

Jack stepped into the block of flats and immediately smelled something off. He looked to the bottom of the stairs, seeing the edge of a dark purple bloodstain that had been cleaned up in a hurry. Approaching it he could also see a black body bag hidden just underneath the stairway. The lighting wasn’t the strongest so it wouldn’t be spotted by anyone who didn’t know what they were looking for but it would be best to move it as soon as possible. Gwen jogged up the stairs, all the way to Melodys door and knocked, a little unnerved by the deep gouge in the wall. The door opened.

“Hi, come in.” Mel said softly, looking exhausted. 

She stepped inside and saw Ianto, feet up on the coffee table, arms crossed, tie sitting atop his folded jacket, the two top buttons of his shirt undone, fast asleep. An open first aid kit sat on the other side of the coffee table. The cuts on his neck were small but that didn’t mean they should just be left. Each one had been covered with a striped plaster. If the rest of his neck wasn’t decorated with the early signs of some nasty bruising they would have looked almost silly. Jack followed Gwen in and a warm smile spread across his face seeing his partner sleeping so peacefully. 

“I kind of don’t want to disturb him.” Gwen chuckled.

“He is cute. It looks like you two had this handled… Mostly.”

Mel sat in the armchair next to the sofa. “He did. I can help move the bodies if you want. We managed to hide them but there’s no way they’d fit in his car without making a mess.”

“Didn’t anyone here notice?” Asked Gwen.

“They did but I sent them back into their flats and removed the memory of what they’d seen.”

“No retcon necessary then.” She placed a hand on Iantos shoulder, speaking softly. “Ianto. Ianto wake up.”

He murmured before opening one eye. “Gwen?” He sounded as if he’d been gargling gravel. “Sorry. I must have dropped off.” He winced as he sat forward, placing his feet back on the floor, his neck aching.

“It’s ok. We dropped Owen and Tosh off at the hub so we’re just going to grab the bodies from downstairs and that’ll be it for the day.”

“Right… Mel, are you going to be ok here tonight?”

Melody nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m probably just going to grab something to eat and crash out for the night anyway.” 

He didn’t look convinced. 


	4. Preparation

Another day, another body. Owen looked around at the flat, door damaged by the police having to kick it down to gain access. It had probably been decorated last in the eighties and there was a definite stain from years of smoking. The bedroom didn’t look as if there had been a struggle, not that the guy could have. The bodies wrists and ankles were strapped to the posts of the bed. The rest of him had been covered with a thin sheet but the drop in it around his stomach said there was probably very little left underneath. He still had most of his face intact but it looked like his jaw had been forced open and the sides of his mouth had split. Jack took one side of the sheet as Owen took the other and they pulled it back to assess the damage. The mans spinal cord was clearly visible as the rest of the soft tissues had melted into soup. 

“You’ve got to feel sorry for them. They must have really trusted whatever did this.” Owen mused, noting that there weren’t even any strain marks on the wooden posts of the bed.

“It’s going after people it knows will hand that trust over. His name was in the BDSM groups sign in book.”

“Think it’s hunting there?”

“Probably. It’s found a way to kill people without a fight. We might have to join their get together tomorrow to stop anyone else ending up like this.”

“Mel’s been to one of those meetings before.”

“I don’t want to put her in harms way. Not after yesterday.”

“She’s not exactly this things type. Anyway, she’ll just be there so we don’t stand out like a sore thumb.” 

Jack knew Owen was right but the idea still put him on edge. Melody could telepathically sweep the area to identify any alien, tell them and stay safe and out of the way. Even if it wasn’t there they could cross all of those names off the list of suspects. 

“That is if we don’t find anything here.” Owen said, moving to get a better view of how he was going to move this, mostly liquid, body. 

Ianto was glad to have the SUV up and running again, even if Gwen had to be the one to supervise the new windscreens installation instead of him. Much to his embarrassment he’d spent the morning a little stuck down in Jacks bunker after both his neck and arms decided they’d protest his actions from the night before. Owen had given him some painkillers but it still took a while for him to regain the strength in his arms to climb. Tosh had nearly jumped out of her skin when he’d emerged. She’d assumed he’d taken the day off and was at his flat to recover. He’d still sounded a little gravelly when he’d apologised. 

“Where is everyone?” He asked, not used to being the one having to ask that specific question. 

She frowned a little. “Jack and Owen are collecting another body. And Gwen took Melody to help feed Janet.” 

“Right… Would you like a coffee? I’m making some anyway.”

“Yes please. Jack tried but he didn’t look too impressed with the result.”

“I spoiled him.”

Gwen opened one of the security doors to let Mel pass carrying the bucket of some kind of meat. She didn’t know what kind it was but it looked like beef. A bit of a change from the three chickens Janet usually had. 

“She should be more interested in the bucket than you, but just in case I’ll be right beside you with the weevil spray.” Gwen assured, showing the spray to make her point. 

Mel smiled. “Thanks. It shouldn’t be a problem though. Weevils have low level telepathy so I can make her understand that I’m no threat.”

“Does that mean you can hear her talk?”

“Not talk. It’s more like feelings and abstract images.”

“Can you read animals minds too?”

“Kind of. Knowing that a dog is really happy when it sees a new friend isn’t very helpful.”

She chuckled. She had such a warm smile. Melodys heart jumped a little, feeling her face flush. Janets growls snapped them both back into the task at hand. The weevil was just hungry but a hungry weevil was a dangerous weevil. Not that a full weevil was much better, as shown by the one they’d brought in from Tesco almost headbutting the door at the smell of meat. They’d given him a couple of pieces to make him feel better. Janet paced back and forth impatiently. 

“Right, a few rules before I open the door. One, never turn your back on a weevil unless you have no other choice but to run. Two, no matter how calm or tame they might look they can turn nasty in the blink of an eye, so never let your guard down. Three, don’t try and fight a weevil. I know it sounds a bit obvious but they have tough hide so a punch from any average person is something they’ll barely feel. The best thing you can do is try and distract them or spray them in the face. Luckily we have a whole bucket of distraction.”

Mel chuckled. “Got it.” 

She nodded and opened the cell door, making it very clear that she was holding a can of weevil spray. Janet huffed and loped to the far corner, waiting for her meal. Melody placed it down in the middle of the cell before backing off slowly. Janet sniffed the air and tilted her head, not immediately heading for the food. Usually she would have been face down in the bucket before the door closed but this time she was tilting her head like a dog that heard a strange noise. Mel didn’t stop, deciding she could think about it with a bulletproof wall between her and the walking set of fangs and hunger. Once the door was closed Janet lost interest, finding the bucket of meat a lot more intriguing. 

“There we go. All done.” Gwen smiled brightly. “I don’t think Myfanwy gets fed until late evening so we can head back up.”

“You first. I’ll follow.”

“Have you thought more about coming to the pub with us tonight? I know it’ll be a bit noisy.”

She thought for a moment. “I’ve had forewarning so I should be fine as long as a fight doesn’t break out.” 

“Is that a yes?”

“Yea. I hope you can catch this black widow before then.”

“You and me both. I still can’t work out why he didn’t defend himself. He wasn’t restrained from what Owen could tell.”

“Maybe he didn’t need to be.”

“I’m still not sure he was drugged.”

“No, he didn’t have to be. From his profile it looked like he’d been in the scene for a while and he was only a submissive, not a switch-”

“Um.”

“Someone who can be in a dominant or submissive role.”

“Right.”

“Well, depending on how much trust you put in your dom it’s possible to go into a kind of hypnotic state. It wouldn’t stop him defending himself but it might have slowed the realisation long enough for it not to matter.”

“How long would you have to be in a… um… Relationship? For that to happen.”

“Yes, relationship, and a while. It depends how trusting you are as a person, how good your dom is. There are a lot of psychological factors involved.” 

She leaned against the wall.

“Sorry. I must be making you uncomfortable.”

“Hmm? No. No, I think I’m starting to understand. I’ve been looking at this like something new using the group to target, but if you’re right then they have to have either been there for a while, keeping their head down, or have started using someone there like a puppet. He had to have known this person before the night he was killed… You said you looked on his profile and it said he was primarily submissive.”

“Yea.”

“We need to look at that book again. We can halve our list of suspects, at least, using the extra information from the profiles.” 

“I can give you my login.”

“I’m not going to be able to get around all the terminology on my own. I’m sure the tourist info centre won’t fall apart without you for a little bit.”

“If you think I won’t get in the way.”

“Of course not. Come on.” She took the stairs two at a time and Mel dutifully followed.

Jack listened carefully to everything Gwen had to say and agreed with her points. Owen had found very little.

“His cause of death was pretty obvious, but this one did have a lot of makeup residue on his hands. Whoever it’s pretending to be is pretty pale and they’re going to look like they’ve caked it on.” He explained. “Strange thing is it didn’t contain any skin cells.”

“That means it hasn’t just possessed someone already in the group.” Gwen stated, checking over her list of names.

“That amount of makeup could be to cover whatever inhuman features they can’t hide.” 

“So, are we visiting all twenty of these people to see if they’re really over doing it with the foundation?”

Jack shook his head. “Not when we can get them to come to us.”

“What?”

“There’s a meeting tomorrow. If this thing’s started feeding it’s going to be looking for its next meal, and we have someone who can sniff them out in seconds.”

“Oh she’s not going to be happy about that.”

“I agree. So, good luck telling her.” 

“What?!” 

Owen chuckled and walked out before he got dragged into this argument in the making.

“Jack, I thought we were trying to keep her out of the line of fire.”

“We are. She isn’t going to go near the thing. All she has to do is identify who it is and we can do the rest.”

“What if it can tell?”

“That’s why one of us will be going with her. I’m not sending her in alone, especially after last night.”

She sighed deeply. “I’ll go with her, but you get to buy all our drinks tonight.”

“Deal. Wait, she actually agreed?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Nothing.” He said, heading to his office with mild amusement at Mels obvious crush. He didn’t know everything about her, but keeping track of where she was for all those years left him with a good idea of her personality. Melody was an introvert. Going out for drinks with friends was not her idea of a good time. She didn’t even do that with her best friends at college. The only reason she’d put herself through dealing with that many people was that she was attracted to whoever asked her to go. He just hoped it wasn’t going to cause problems. At least Gwen was the type to let her down gently. 

Tosh pulled her coat tightly around herself to block out the biting cold of the evening. As much as she loved little reminders of the outside world once in a while she preferred warm reminders, not ones that made her ears and nose burn. Like usual she was lagging behind the rest of the team, mostly due to them having longer legs than her. It wasn’t intentional, of course. At least this time there was someone else lagging behind with her. Melody was just keeping up.

“I’m glad you decided to join us.” Tosh said with a soft smile.

She breathed out a small cloud of condensation. “I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone more.” 

“If it helps, you’re doing great.”

“Thanks.”

“Ianto said you’re planning on moving.”

“Hopefully. I just have to find somewhere first. It’s funny, I’ve never lived on my own before.”

“Really?” 

“I moved from my parents house to living with my ex, then right to living with Jess.”

“You’ll be fine. It just takes a little getting used to.”

“At least I know how to cook so there’s that.”

“You’re doing better than most of us then.” She giggled. 

Gwen laughed and looked over her shoulder. “I used to be able to cook. I’m just rusty.”

“Microwave meals don’t count.” Owen smirked. 

“Cheeky sod.”

“So I’m right then.” 

“No!... I can make fish fingers too.”

“Oh, well I take it all back then. The height of culinary talent here.”

“Shut up.” 

Tosh rolled her eyes. “It’s as bad as them arguing over who gets to drive.”

“Oh dear.” Melody chuckled. 

“And don’t bother joining in, they’ll never let you.”

“That won’t be a problem. I don’t know how to drive.” 

“Neither does Jack but that doesn’t stop him.” Owen teased, a wide grin on his face. 

Three rounds in and everyone had relaxed somewhat. Owen and Tosh were having a small pool tournament. The former shamelessly cheating and the latter looking more and more like she was going to bonk him on the head with her pool cue. Jack had jumped to his usual night out mode of telling stories as Gwen gave him sceptical looks every so often. Ianto looked a little better than he had earlier and his voice had cleared enough to be understandable even somewhere quite noisy. Melody nursed her drink, happy with the low level buzz she had going. Gwen turned to her.

“You know a lot about our work. I mean you did before you joined us. I thought you refused to get involved before.”

“I did.” Mel answered. “But I’m an activity magnet. I just dealt with things on my own.”

“How?”

“Luck mostly. That and I can scare most things off.” 

For a moment she could swear Jack looked concerned, but he swiftly covered it. She decided maybe a slight change of topic was in order. “So, what should I wear tomorrow?”

“Whatever you’d usually wear to the pub.”

“Really?”

“Yea. I told you it’s casual. Though bring money for drinks and anything shiny you see. A lot of the vendors do little things like jewellery and clothing.”

“Rhys would ask me so many questions if I brought stuff home.”

Ianto looked up from his glass. “I’m sure he’d be devastated if you came home in a corset and thigh high boots.” He said drily. 

“Still.” She chuckled at the idea, and the look on Rhys’ face that she imagined. 

Mel hid her reddening face behind her glass, trying to think of anything other than her coworker in a corset and thigh high boots. She was not doing well. 

“Anyway-” Gwen continued. “I’ll pick you up at about eleven and we can head over.” 


	5. Hive

Rhys had found Gwens mission pretty entertaining as he knew that in a crowd she was very unlikely to get hurt. What she was going to be was a bit out of her depth and probably spending the day as red as a beetroot. He’d confirmed that he definitely wouldn’t mind her bringing a corset and some thigh high boots home. She’d told him if she did he’d never get to see her in them. He’d pouted a bit before giving her a kiss and hoping she had a good day. The drive to Melodys flat was short and relatively quiet for a Saturday morning. Melody was waiting when she arrived, wearing a lot of pastel colours for someone who wore black waistcoats and skirts all week. It suited her but it was a definite surprise. 

“Morning.” Gwen said brightly as Mel slid into the passenger seat. 

“Good morning. Ready for today?”

“I think so. I still have no idea what I’m walking into here.”

“You’ll be fine. I spoke to a few of the group online when I got home last night and they’re going to meet us just inside. They have a photography business and they’re really nice.”

“Look at you being the social one.”

“I’m social online. It’s just in person that’s difficult.”

Walking up to the pub it seemed quite busy for so early in the day. A tall, burly looking, man wearing jeans and a rugby shirt stood beside the door to the function room holding a book. His eyes lit up as Gwen and Mel approached. 

“Hello there love. We were all thinking we’d frightened you off.” He announced warmly. 

Mel smiled brightly. “No, no. Life just got a bit difficult for a while.”

“Well, I hope it’s going better now. And you brought a friend.”

“This is Gwen.”

“Do you have some ID?”

Gwen couldn’t help but feel a little flattered that he felt the need to check at all. She took her drivers licence from her bag and held it out to him. 

He nodded and ticked her name off in the book. “Brilliant. You two have a good day. I think Sandra’s about if you need anything.”

“Thanks.” Mel smiled fondly. “Are many more people due today?”

“Only a few. Everyone wanted to at least show up after what happened to Olly. Poor lad. Sandra put out a donation box to help with his funeral costs. He wasn’t a wealthy man but he was a good man.” 

“Are you going to be ok?”

His eyes glimmered a little with a deep sadness. “Oh don’t go worrying about me. I’ll be just fine.”

“It’ll be ok.” Melody patted him on the arm, her voice sounding soft but almost musical. It was soothing, like a lullaby sung by an attentive grandmother. 

The sadness dulled a little and he felt a warmth he hadn’t since he was a child. “Thanks.”

With a nod she headed into the large function room. The place was abuzz with activity. Tables lined the edges of the room with displays from multiple businesses and societies. Gwen was surprised by how tame everything seemed. It looked more like a slightly more leather clad Sunday market than she’d imagined. A very cheerful looking man waved them over to a nearby table. The display board advertised a photography studio that did everything from large events to small personal shoots. A large rainbow sticker announced that they were LGBT and kink friendly, which was something Gwen had never considered. 

“Melody. I’m so glad you made it. Would this be Gwen?” The man asked. 

Mel nodded. “Gwen, this is Julian. He runs the Shimmering light photography studio.”

“Nice to meet you.” Gwen offered her hand to shake, which he gladly took. 

“You too. We’ve grabbed the corner if you want to join us. Ronan’s gone off shopping and I think Claudia’s getting drinks. She was going on and on about some bloke in a blue coat in the other room.”

The two followed Julian over to the table. A tall, dark haired, woman with bright blue eyes stood next to it, towering over many of the people walking past at six foot five. Gwen had to admit she was stunning and found herself staring unintentionally. The woman smiled.

“Hello.” She said. “You must be Gwen. I’m Seline.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Make yourself at home. Oh Mel, what happened to your arm? Did your ex show her ugly mug?” 

Gwen turned to see that Melody had taken off her pink hoodie, her short sleeved tee shirt showing off the support wrapped around her arm. 

Mel shook her head. “No. Well, she did but she didn’t do this.”

“I was going to say, do I have to go and shove one of my size ten stilettos up her arse?”

“No.” She chuckled. “This was why I didn’t come back right away. I got mugged and my arm got messed up. On the plus side I met Gwen while they were trying to catch the bastard who did it.”

Seline looked shocked. “Bloody hell. You’re handling it well.”

“I can’t let that kind of thing stop me from living. Anyway, I’m going to show Gwen around and I’ll see you all in a bit.”

“We’ll be right here.” 

She beckoned Gwen away. “Are you ok?”

“Yea. It’s nice to see you being so outgoing.”

“Not really. I’m trying to use conversation to keep myself grounded. There are so many people here so it’s loud to say the least.”

“If you need to do this from outside then we can. Don’t suffer just because of us.”

“I’ll be fine. As soon as the last few people get here I can mind sweep everyone and hand it off. Plus I kind of want to do some shopping.” She gave a tired smile.

Gwen chuckled in reply. As they were both browsing a range of very well made corsets Sandra walked over.

“Oh, hello there.” The older woman said, spotting Gwen.

“Hi.”

“I didn’t know you’d be here. I know you probably can’t give me details but I hope the investigation’s going well.”

“Actually I’m here with Melody, but thank you.” 

“Really? That’s great.” She looked relieved for a moment. “I know this is your day off but I’ve been thinking.”

“Go ahead.”

“Well, I’m not accusing her but one of our organisers was spending a lot of time with Olly before he… Passed… I thought she might know something, that’s all.”

“No, that’s great. Anything helps. What’s her name?”

“Wendy Baxter. She’s meant to be here today but she hasn’t arrived yet. I’ll try and find you when she gets here.”

“Thank you.”

She nodded before being pulled away by another attendee. Melody tapped Gwen on the shoulder.

“Everything ok?” 

Mel placed the handle of a bag in her hand. “You would have never decided so I thought, why not.”

“What?” She peeked in the bag to see a black corset neatly folded inside. “Are you sure?”

“Certain.”

Jack smiled to himself, listening to his staff bickering lightly over the pool tournament from the night before.

“It’s not my fault your aim’s off when you’ve had a few.” Owen said, knowing he was being a bit of a git. 

Tosh glared. “My aim was off because you kept nudging my arm.”

“You can’t prove anything.”

“Of course I can.”

“No hacking.”

“I’ll just ask.”

“That’s just not playing fair.”

“Niether’s cheating. It’s practically the dictionary definition.”

“Why are you so upset? You still won.”

“That’s not the point.” 

“Jack, can you ask Gwen to hurry up. This isn’t how I wanted to spend my weekend.”

Ianto rolled his eyes. “Isn’t being in the pub exactly what you’d be doing?”

“No. Not until at least six. Right now I’d still be in bed.”

“It’s nearly lunchtime.”

“Never said I’d be sleeping-OW!” He jolted as Tosh kicked him in the leg under the table, as she began turning a rather deep shade of red. 

Jack chuckled. “We’ll know when they’re done. You’ll be able to feel the mind scan.”

“Aren’t there a lot of people here.”

“Yes… Why?”

“Because Mel said she didn’t do well in crowds. Too many minds unguarded and talking.”

“Gwen’s with her. She’ll make sure nothing bad happens.” 

“I hope so.”

A familiar poking at the back of his mind caught his attention. “And there she is. Hopefully we’ll have an answer soon.”

Gwen kept an eye on the crowd while Melody concentrated, both sitting next to the photography studios table as if they were just taking a break from the crowd. The last few people had arrived so if the alien was going to be there then the best time to find them was now. Mel filtered through the loud hum of so many minds in one place, carefully checking for something not human. It was taking a while but she found something. It was quiet but it was different, definitely not the same as everything around it. She dared to look deeper to find a name and a mental image of the being. 

“Wendy Francine Baxter… Average height. Pale skin. Dark eyes. Red hair in a ponytail. Red shirt. Black trousers. Black coat. Sandra’s bringing her this way.” She said softly. 

Gwen sent the description to the others. “Can you get her to talk to me outside?”

“I’ll try.” 

She looked up as Sandra made her way through the crowd with a woman who looked to be in her late twenties.

“Gwen. This is Wendy.”

The agent put on a smile as if nothing was going on. “Hello. If you get the chance today could I ask you a few questions?”

“Of course.” Wendy answered, barely moving her lips, as if she was wearing a mask of some kind. “What would you like to know?”

“Could we go somewhere a little quieter?”

She didn’t look too convinced and was about to answer when Melody spoke up, her voice echoing slightly in the air.

“You can go outside. I can take care of our things here.” 

Miss Baxter nodded and turned to leave the room, fully convinced that was what she wanted to do in the first place. As Gwen walked with her she noted the thick layer of foundation spread across the womans face that indented slightly along her cheeks, following from her lips and up to her ears. They walked around to the side of the pub, out of sight of the rest of the staff and attendees. 

“So, how can I help you?” Wendy asked. “Sandra said you’re a police officer.”

“Close enough. I’m from Torchwood.”

“Torchwood.” The woman spat, the edges of her mouth beginning to split, the layer of liquid latex not able to hold against the separation of her jaw.

“I wouldn’t try fighting.” Jack said, aiming squarely at the aliens head. 

Like a frog, Wendys tongue sprung from her mouth and slammed Jack in the chest, knocking him to the floor, the front of his shirt beginning to burn with the caustic residue the hit had left behind. Gwen took the opportunity to punch the woman in the jaw, though it did little to stop her. It looked like she’d unhinged her jaw to use the long appendage. 

Owen ran around the other side of the pub, firing and wounding Wendy. The bullet ripping through her shoulder. He was so intent of stopping her that he didn’t hear anyone creep up behind him, but he definitely felt the chair being brought down on the back of his head. At least in the moment before he lost consciousness. Ianto dragged Jack away from the fight, out of the line of fire with help from Gwen. Tosh covered them, making Wendy retreat back with the man holding the remnants of the chair, staring blankly. 

Melody could feel a sudden rise in panic. She heard to doors being closed and Alled, the man who’d been signing people in, telling those doing it to stop. 

“Danny, what the hell are you playing at?” He asked gruffly, reaching out to grab the shorter mans shoulder. Danny turned, his eyes blank, and roughly pushed Alled back. There was a commotion from the fire door as a group blocked that off too. Mel held her head as the mental screaming began. 


	6. Clipped wings

Ianto handed Gwen her gun as they chased after Wendy, Jack following behind, minus his shirt. Thankfully the acid hadn’t soaked through his vest so he wasn’t too cold, but he was annoyed. Tosh had stayed back to make sure Owen was still in one piece. Wendy was slowing but the man she had under her control was making sure he was between them and her. Ianto shot the man in the leg, but other than a slight stumble it didn’t seem to affect him. Wendy took cover behind a wall and sprayed a cloud of acid back, burning her bewitched protector. His skin sleused off and Jack decided to end his pain. Even if he couldn’t feel it right away, he would when the aliens control wore off. A single shot to the head dropped him to the ground. 

“Get any closer and I’ll digest you all alive.” Wendy hissed. “You should be more worried about the ones left in the pub. My drones are rounding them up as we speak. I will feast.”

“You think they’ll just surrender without a fight?” Growled Jack.

“They just have to be kept busy until I’m done with you.”

“Why now? You’ve been here for a while.”

“Simple. I need the energy for hatching season.” 

Melody regained consciousness, realising she was on the floor. 

Seline was hunched over her. “Thank goodness. You fainted and I thought…”

“I’m ok now. What.. What happened?” She asked, rubbing her head. 

“Don’t know. Some of the lads have lost it. They’re guarding the doors. Alled knocked one of them out but after that they ganged up on him.”

She surveyed the room, everyone frightened and huddled together, not sure what else to do. Alled lay, out cold, his head rested on Sandras lap. The panic had died down enough that Mel could try and think. She needed to somehow restrain the bewitched people, but trying to access their minds was like trying to read a blank piece of paper. Pushing harder could hurt them, but it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice. She concentrated on the one that had been knocked unconscious and broke through the haze of his mind. She could feel another set of thoughts, smaller, not as individualised. It worked for the hive queen, defending her and gathering food. That’s why they were being held in one place. She was snapped back to the outside world as someone made a run for it and the mental screaming started again. It was too much. Too loud. 

“Stop!!” She screamed, her voice reverberating off the walls. The room fell silent, everyone frozen in place. She still had an awful migraine and she could feel blood dripping from her nose but at least she could try and handle these alien drones. They were fighting her influence off quickly so she needed to do something. She grabbed some rope from one of the sales tables and hoped she could remember how to tie decent knots. 

Owen sat up hoping he’d escaped a concussion. Tosh kept a hand on his back. 

“What happened?” He asked. 

“She had people under her control and they hit you with a chair.”

“I know I got hit but a chair? Really?”

“Jack, Ianto and Gwen went after her. There was a commotion in the pub but it’s quietened down. I was about to go and investigate.”

“Right.” He pulled himself to his feet. “If she had friends then we should clear the place anyway.”

Another commotion could be heard until they both heard a familiar voice scream. They ran to the door, only to find it locked. 

“Oh bugger this.” He grabbed a loose brick from the wall out front and gestured for Tosh to move back and out of the way. With a short lunge he launched the brick through one of the large windows, shattering it into a million pieces. He used another to clear the glass from the bottom of the frame so it was climbable and hoisted himself up, offering his hand to help Tosh join him. She carefully made her way inside, seeing that the main bar area was empty. Tosh pushed the door to the event room and it slowly swung open to reveal the scene, frozen in time. The only one moving was Melody as she carefully bound the arms of one of the drones. 

“Mel? What’s going on?” Asked Tosh as she approached. 

Mels voice sounded pained. “Some of them were being controlled by the alien. I think they have eggs or young inside them…. As soon as they’re tied up… I can stop trying to hold them immobile.” 

“And everyone else?”

“They were panicking. They’re just asleep.” 

She bent down to try and take over binding the mans wrists when she gasped, seeing the blood staining Melodys top. “Owen! Over here.”

“It’s fine. Just a nosebleed. They happen if I’m pushing myself too hard.”

“That’s a lot of blood for a nosebleed.” Owen said, guiding her to a chair. “How many more do we need to tie up?”

“Those three by the fire exit, the two over there and… The one in that corner with all the phones.” 

“Then you can stop holding them, right?”

“Yea.” 

He took a set of weevil bands from his jacket pocket and very swiftly restrained the drones. “There. You can relax a bit.”

The drones began to move, more than one falling as they were half way through moving and now their feet were tied together. 

Mel looked over to the crowd of people. “Everything is fine. Everything is normal. What a ridiculous act. Sandra needs to take Alled to hospital after a nasty fall where he hit his head. It’s getting late. Time to start going home.” 

They all began to move, ignoring the strangeness around them as if they simply didn’t see it. They were more concerned with helping Alled to Sandras car. It was a perfect cover to get Melody out of view. Tosh grabbed the bags and coats for both Gwen and Mel, following Owen out.

The rest of the team had hit a stalemate. They couldn’t get closer without being burned by the acid cloud and Wendy couldn’t run without being shot. Jack had considered just running in and hoping he could kill her before the acid killed him. The looks he got from both Ianto and Gwen said that wasn’t going to happen. 

“Ianto.” He began.

“Yes, sir?”

“Are you still carrying that lighter?”

“Is now really the time to ask if I’ve actually given up smoking?”

“I know you’re not. I’d be able to smell it. Lighter.” He held out his hand.

Ianto sighed and took the old, plastic, lighter from his coat pocket and placed it in Jacks palm. The captain looked back towards the wall and threw it, shooting it out of the air and igniting the mix of fuel and acid in a rank smelling fireball. Wendy screeched and stood, flailing to try and escape the flames. A hail of bullets finished her off.

“If that acid is flammable, shouldn’t we be moving?” Asked Ianto, already backing off.

Jack grabbed both of them and pulled them down as the body exploded, flames raining down as he protected them with his coat. Thankfully the acid burnt off quickly and only left ashes behind. 

Returning to the pub they saw Mel sat on the outer wall wearing her hoodie as a shirt, her original shirt sitting next to her, covered in blood. Owen was just pulling off his gloves, looking worried. 

Gwen ran over. “Oh sweetheart, what happened?”

“Pyonic induced nosebleed.” Owen said flatly. 

“In English?”

“Mind powers make blood pressure high.” He gestured as if explaining it to a child. 

Gwen glared. “Don’t be an arse.”

“Can’t change the habits of a lifetime. Anyway, no telepathy for at least a week and next time call for backup. Don’t try and handle that kind of situation on your own. Pulling a stunt like that could have killed you.”

“Sorry.” Melody said softly, holding a tissue under her nose. The blood had slowed to nearly nothing but her head was still pounding. 

“How many other drones are there?” Gwen asked, rubbing Mels back comfortingly. 

He grabbed his medical kit ready to put it away. “None now. I gave them a little something to kill off the eggs. They don’t remember a thing after they arrived. Tosh is just grabbing any footage.”

“All sorted then.” She sat down on the wall. “Want me to take you home?”

Mel nodded softly, regretting it right away. “I just want to lay down in a dark room for a few days until my head stops feeling like it’s going to explode.”

Back at home, Gwen dropped her bags by the sofa and slumped down into it next to her boyfriend. 

“How did it go?” He asked, wrapping an arm around her.

“It could have been worse. Melody bought me a little something.” 

“Oh? You can’t tell me that and not show me.” He grinned. 

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the bag, pulling out the paper wrapped corset. It was black silk with a red phoenix carefully embroidered into the left front panel. 

“I wish my friends were that generous. Bloody hell.” He mused, looking at the price on the receipt. She gave him a questioning look and leaned to see two hundred pounds printed on the small slip of paper. 

“I don’t know if I want to wear it now. What if I drop something on it?”

“I’ve got to see you in it at least once.”

“Oh alright then.” She chuckled, trotting off to the bedroom to get changed. 

“Here I was worrying about your boss trying to steal you away. I should have been looking out for the office girl.”

“As if you wouldn’t want to see that.”

“Never said I wouldn’t.” He leaned on the back of the sofa as he waited for her to reemerge.

“You would not be ok with me hooking up with a woman.”

“I could be convinced.”

“Wait…” She peeked around the door. “Are you serious?”

“Are you?” There was something so earnest in the way he asked that she was very much caught off guard.

“I… Well, I don’t know… I haven’t really thought about it.”

He watched her disappear around the door again. “It’s not like you’ve gone off with a woman since college.”

“I’ve got you.”

“Are you calling me a woman?”

“No, I mean I love you so I haven’t been looking, you silly sod.” 

“I’m just saying, if you find a woman you fancy I wouldn’t mind.”

“For now…” She slipped around the door, the corset laced tightly to show off her curves. “What do you think?”

Rhys scrambled over the back of the sofa and moved to pick her up over his shoulder. She squealed and giggled as he carried her into the bedroom and kicked the door closed behind him. 

Melody sat on the edge of her bed, her headache having eased enough for her to function. She’d showered and changed into an oversized tee shirt and jogging bottoms so she was close to comfortable. She picked up her guitar and tried to sit with it properly. It had been nearly two months since she’d even touched it so it took a moment to get back into the proverbial rhythm. She carefully checked it was in tune before beginning to go through chords. Like riding a bike it was something you never forgot. The sound was quiet and soothing. At least it was until one of the notes was just a bit off. She repeated the set and it sounded fine. She was no Santana but she was good enough. Another note was slightly off. She looked at her fingers as they moved across the frets and realised her index finger wasn’t holding down the string correctly. It wasn’t just her index finger. Every so often one of her fingers wouldn’t press down, instead just resting on the string. She tried again and again but every wrong note made the lump in her throat grow. Finally she placed the instrument back in its place and collapsed down onto the bed, her face buried in the duvet as she sobbed in frustration. What was she doing? Getting feelings for her already taken workmate, trying to pretend her life was normal, acting like she could even consider having a relationship in the future. She couldn’t. She couldn’t let anyone get that close to her ever again. Her phone buzzed from inside her shoulder bag. She reached into the bag she’d abandoned by the wardrobe and pulled out her mobile. It was just a message. 

Iantos name was illuminated at the top of the screen. “ _ How are you feeling? I hope your head’s not hurting as much. Jack says if you need Monday off then go ahead. Janet won’t give me the bucket back. Apparently it’s her new favourite toy. _ ” Attached was a slightly blurry photograph of Janet hugging the bucket as to protect it from being taken. 

Mel wiped her eyes and chuckled slightly, replying. “ _ I’ll be fine. Want me to order a few more buckets? I don’t think you’re getting that one back. _ ”

“ _ I’ve already ordered three. See you on Monday. And I might have managed to get the blood out of your shirt. _ ”

“ _ Thanks. You’re a star. _ ”

“ _ I can get blood out of almost anything. Can’t get Jack to do his ironing though. _ ” 


End file.
